Pick-up truck cover apparatus for covering pick-up truck boxes are well known in the prior art for the purposes of protecting the box from the elements or theft. The most common form and the least expensive apparatus known is a waterproof tarpaulin manually fixed by snaps around the perimeter of the box. Such canvas or tarpaulin covers are difficult to install or remove, they are difficult to store, they do not support the weight of a snowfall very easily, and they offer little or no theft protection.
Other apparatus are known in the art, which offer some protection from theft and relative ease of storage, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,921 (CHAMPY et al.), wherein a sliding articulated metal cover slides in a track along the lengthwise side of the pick-up truck box and locks into the tail gate to provide a complete truck box cover.
Such known apparatus which slide over the upper surface of the pick-up truck box in order to provide a secure rigid cover, have the drawback that they occupy space within the truck box and require either difficult installation or substantial cost in their manufacture. It is furthermore a disadvantage with the conventional sliding articulated truck box covers that the known covers open from one end only and therefore access to the contents can only be had once the sliding cover is opened to the point in the truck box where access is required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an easy to use, secure and weatherproof pick-up truck box cover apparatus which is able to offer easy and quick access to the contents of the truck box, a relatively low cost, ease of storage when not in use, and easy installation.